Friday, May 18, 2012

Women Will Save the World by Caroline A. Shearer edited by Sarah Hackley

Inspired by a quote from the Dalai Lama that "The world will be saved by the Western woman," Caroline A. Shearer had a vision to bring together accounts of feminine traits such as collaboration, nurturing, creativity, strength, and intuition. Women Will Save the World is filled with biographies of historical women who made a difference as well as essays written by women of today who have faced many different obstacles - medical, financial, spiritual - and survived.

Many of the women profiled were new to me, and I always appreciate the opportunity to read about successful women and learn how they have accomplished what they have. I also enjoyed the short biographies of the more well-known historical figures. This approach helped to ground the essays in a feminist and historical context. At times I did feel that the focus of the book was narrowing; without taking anything away from the contributors who are profiled in this book, I would love to hear more from other women from many different backgrounds. I sometimes lost the thread of how this was going to "save the world" while at other times thinking that it veered into self-help territory. I think, though, that ultimately those two go hand-in-hand. How can women 'help' themselves? By using the traits and behaviours of positive female role models. Women Will Save the World isn't trying to be everything to everyone; its focus is on sharing stories of strong, successful Western (in this case, American) women. Read this in connection with some other explorations about female power and see all of the ways that women have been and will continue to contribute to the world.

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All opinions are mine and do not reflect the opinions of anyone that I work for or anyone who has sent me a book for review.

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My blog name comes from people crowding re-shelving trucks in the library, eager to see what other people were returning. There's an excitement in finding out what other people are reading, and it's a great way to get ideas for what to read next.

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For each title, I've listed a few other books under Read It With. These are titles that are similar in some way: plots, tones, themes, settings, characters, and so on. They're not straight-up read-alikes; for example, sometimes a juvenile book might have a picture book, a YA book, or an adult book listed. There's not really a science to how I come up with them - they're just meant to spark something if you're interested in a title.